the women have the capability to bring to the table when steve diplomacy, no different than men and i think it's just like any other field you can't take women out of the equation. 50 to 60% of the population. if you're just saying no women at all, then you're taking away the pool from which we can draw. >> guest: i was never a huge advocate for the women in combat before investigating this whole issue. >> host: what about sexual harassment in the military? did you see it in iraq? is it coming down, going up? ..

>> a positive role. so many books portrayed women as having a negative experience and i wanted to show there is a positive thing to come out of that as well. >> host: you are a major that is the toughest wage is a shoving paper around it you can get past that you will be great but major this paper pushing but one more question. you had a good experience a in wrote the book and also a love story as indicated the floor. if you have dave baby girl who would you tell her it is o.k. to go into the military

for this as a career to be a marine and all that you can be? what would you say to your daughter? we have about one manesh. [laughter] >> guest: i would train her to shoot. [laughter] but that is just me. >> host: is there enough trained team because sometimes in basic training the. >> it is exactly the same the. >> i felt good to go when still make you or would have taught her how to shoot. [laughter] thank you so much and for having written hesitation kills and i hope the viewers will pick up the coffee and read it because i found it incredibly great

>> i am president of museum of american finance. welcome to the inner-city of that central oklahoma the. they are in the house. thank you for coming. please join us next week on the 26 to continue the lunch and learn series br khyber of the rothschild should it is a historic banking house. then on the 24th we will be screening the are read discovery of alexander hamilton. the pbs documentary and all of your questions can be answered because the producer and director will be in the house. turning your attention and

two today with matthew algeo and his book "the president is a sick man" his second book harry truman's excellent it a venture which tracks his cross-country trip 1953 that got a lot of great press and in 2009 it was called the best book of the year and before that the war years and thus the goals which is a combination of the eagles and pittsburgh steelers. another interesting book. he has the eclectic background not just an author or journalist but he was a hot dog vendor at a traveling circus come at a halloween costume sales man, a gas station attendant, a convenience store clerk this will put him in a good position because in two months he is moving to mongolia with his wife who was a foreign

service officer. that should be interesting. in a friend to the museum and it is my pleasure to introduce matthew algeo. [applause] >> you make it sound more interesting. great to be at the museum of american finance. it is a fantastic museum and have been coming for a few years now but when i was researching the book is the museum was very helpful to answer my questions how many grains of silver? this is the only place you could send an e-mail with that type divergency then to have been answered within a day year. i did that did in for free today because i am a member. [laughter]

before i talk about grover grover, who was very interesting, or maybe u.s. so we move from. of my name is mr. algeo. ready thinks it is italian but it is irish. i know the latter zero is on the wrong end. [laughter] bite them of irish citizenship and spent one year there as a freelance reporter because a largely consisted of drinking a lot of the year for one year. but one thing i did find out i went to get the i a did he card with the irish the equivalent of the dmv they had three lines that was all according to the first letter of your last name the

first was teetwo of course, the longest was mc-o. i am the youngest of seven which is why i am avoiding eye contact with the right now i just figured it was better to keep my head down. [laughter] but i did growth in the house of readers. meier paris wordpro with big readers. there were not sitting around the gain existentialist. i used to save my dad read by the pound. my mother love true crime would always be embarrassing riding the train reserve it is like the i 95 killer on the front cover there is a pitcher of 70 stabbing somebody but i was lucky.

i ran into a friend from high school who said whenever i went over to your house your parents would be sitting in the living room reading no tv or radio and i thought that was so weird. [laughter] now he has kids of his own he could appreciate that was a good atmosphere to grow up and fostered by the above books. went to college at the university of philadelphia and graduated 1988 with the degree of folklore. any other folklore majors here today? [laughter] angling through the other occupations i have had i have chosen many non lucrative occupations including writings and non best-selling book but that one especially i remember looking at the want ads every sunday.

it would have between forests and forklift operator. but i move to seattle and drifted into public radio that those are the stations on the left of the dial. [laughter] and worked at public radio stations and in minnesota in 2005 i went to los angeles to get a job with the public radio program called marketplace and around this time my wife took the foreign service exam and passed and offered a position so we ran into a bit of the quandary who would be the breadwinner. after several rounds of voting it was 1/1. somehow managed to gain a controlling share then you bring into a she took the

position of not allowing me to work on this non lucrative career. we went to africa so my first book was about philadelphia up pittsburg steelers and egos that they weren't so short of players to bring the world for the receiver was blind in one eye because it was say ragtag bunch but what i tried to do is to take a small and unusual event and expand on it to talk more about the times that the event takes place. hopefully i have done that with this book. "the president is a sick man" even i have to look at this of title to read it. the rise of disaster capitalism" the rise of

disaster capitalism" thank you for coming everybody. [laughter] [applause] you try to invoke the of long titles of the books would have this is the short version we found out the database is how many characters you could have so we had to reduce the title if you could believe that. i have always been interested i have read several cleveland biographies. how many here have as well? i always do the basic story that grover cleveland had a secret operation to remove a cancerous tumor and i -- to enjoy a year alleges a talk about the cancerous tumor. [laughter] i never thought much more about it but 10 years ago i

went to another museum that is of medical history with all kinds of unusual things there in chief justice marshall bladder stones and the piece of the brain of the guy who assassinated garfield and in a small glass jar, the tumor that was removed from grover cleveland's mouth in 1893 in the operation on a boat. that triggered by interest it was still around and somebody thought maybe this is a good thing to keep. i talk to the museum and it turns out one of the doctors had kept it to an end donated it back in 1917 in then he saved the tumor also his correspondence and

clippings and a lot of information about the operation which was intended to be secret. there was the possibility about the story. but as i dug deeper i realize not just the story but a story of the economy at the time and medicis 10 in journalism as well. a lot was going on in the 1890's which was a dead spot for me in history. civil war and world war i in world war ii but i did not know lot about the 1890's i thought it was fined to go back and learn things that i should have been taught to earlier you can learn that the american museum of finance today. its was the until the age named by mark twain it was not meant to be a complement it was meant to be extravaganza in the politics

were fascinating in so many things in researching the book that has run that day's resonance today i don't go into the book so much but like to point* out the first further controversy when per field was running for president. good luck trying to get a book about chester arthur published. the rumors of design is that hot he was born in canada and his mother was the iris mann and father was canada. but the story went when she was pregnant, she went back home to quebec and had the baby there which if true meant chester arthur was not an american citizen because neither parents were and not born in the united states. we do not have the long or

short form birth certificate. they put his name in the family bible and then tune was born in vermont i guess that was good enough to hold the title. grover cleveland was elected four years later always fascinated me for the fact what everybody knows, he served two, nine cassettes -- of nine consecutive terms it he won four years and then loud lost and came back witches and achievement in the american presidency. he had to be a pretty good politician. he screwed up than numbering for the president's party is number 22 in 24. one obama gave his inaugural address he said 44 people have now taken the oath of

office in dallas that a party and i said 43 because grover is counted twice. shot up. nobody wants to hear about grover cleveland right now. [laughter] we were in rome at the time they learned to much more than anybody should and they are forgiven if they do not buy the book. but aside from being a great politician also had the most extraordinary rise to the white house. in 1880 he was single living in a boardinghouse and 12 reit -- will respected but not really active in politics and in four years he became president it is impossible to imagine now. we have heard the name of our next president. there could be a list of 50

may be the next two or three presidents we have already heard their name. he lived a charmed life born 1837 and studied law in the law firm and had no formal education after 16 in in 1881, looking for a candidate to run as the democratic nominee and he won that election and immediately established a reputation for honesty and integrity he was known as the veto mayor one of the most famous was one there was of bill to establish a new sewer system. the city council the difference betrayed fact with the city counseling he vetoed the bell it and then

the following year elected governor of new york than four years later elected president of the united states. you have a guy who goes from being a lawyer nobody heard about from her to governor to president. the 1884 election you think things have changed a lot? not that much with a terribly vicious election one of the dirtiest in history. came out grover had fathered the illegitimate child. his response was legendary. he sent a telegram to his friends that simply said tell the truth and he owned up to this and supported a child since birth and really his reaction to what could

have been a debilitating scandal turned out to be positive for the campaign to demonstrate his integrity and refusal to deny the truth. he was running against a guy named blaine as the democrats like to say the continental wider from the state of maine and it was that a vicious campaign. it came down to new york state has the largest number of electoral votes. whoever won that would win the election. a few days before he appeared at a campaign event -- event in the minister called the democrats the party of ron and romanism and rebellion and drunk and disloyal. this longs psat catholic vote to cleveland who carried the york by 1,000 votes.

it was extremely close but he won in 1884 but in 1886c finally married a woman named francis who was only 21. heave was 49. i don't think we will see another 21 year-old first lady again. it is possible it is a good thing schwarzenegger cannot be elected. [laughter] but francis turned out to be a great political asset and she was one of the most beloved first ladies and a story that after he lost the election losing to benjamin harrison although grover won the popular quote he lost in the electoral college. we will never see that again. leaving the white house apparently francis told fed

chief steward to keep everything the way it is. we will be back in four years. then cleveland did win if the white house back and he and france is now they're daughter baby ruth there was one change. benjamin harrison while in the white house they changeover from gas to your electric and did that as an end of the cleveland's appliances woodwork. [laughter] but he takes the oath of office in march in that was not a good time to become president. here is the panic of 1893. nine days before he took office of the railroad had gone bankrupt and writing was one of the most successful and years before they had built a brand new

terminal in philadelphia standing until the '80s. 1893, the rating went bankrupt. they were hopelessly overbuilt in the 18 eighties and nineties as a speculative bubble like we have had recently. the number of realigns doubled after the civil war but the population only grew 60% the 193 rose went bankrupt in about 20% of the number of the country. of course, all those who had invested stock were wiped out. this sparked a panic on wall street sending the stock market down there was another thing that went on i will not get into too much

but to say i write about it in detail with amazing pros but the debate over gold verses solar. what should the currency be based on? gold or gold in silver? this may seem arcane and celly today while the currency is based . [laughter] on nothing. but very good paper it is. you can watch it and use it. 1893 it boils down should the money be backed? who the country since the 1870's were on the cold so they kept all of the golden

the treasury and if you wanted to redeem you're gold certificates, you could. in the 18 eighties and nineties new states came into the union montana, colorado, nevada, a silver mining states. and they began to clamor for silver to be a unit of currency. they have all-out -- a lot of clout and congress that came in quickly and in 1819 a past of bill hof that require the treasury 2 x 4 point* 5 million ounces of silver every month. >> but this cause rapid inflation as the currency poured into the markets. but those in the west tour

gold mining states did not mind because they could sell to the treasury in the farmers in the south in the midwest to rich and dads, is still recovering from the civil war, but that is how you pay off your debts which is cheaper than the money that you borrowed. they needed a lot of money in their pockets. back east, the bankers and industrialists to were lending the money did not think about the inflation because it devalue their money that they had. it set up a sectional battle believe the most contentious issue between in this up -- civil war in the first world war which to buy did against the side. >> so those ulcers and tease

of the currency market contributed to the panic. so grover takes office and has a lot on his plate. by the way francis is now pregnant with the second child. he had a lot of concerns but in me he notices for the first time of bumper on the roof of his mouth. has read do he put off having it looked at but not until june finally here is dr. kaman is the ball bonnaroo for and he determined to it was say cancerous tumor and dave within in the 19th century into the 20th, the word of

weighted and calling it the disease that no doctor name of. so looking like a 10 it to say it should be removed and cleveland agreed to have the tumor removed but only on the condition it would be offered -- conducted in secret but was afraid if came to be known he had cancer what stage which was considered a death sentence, the markets would crash and the depression would%. he had other and personal reasons and about 10 years before, grant had died of the oral tumor and his death was slow and agonizing with a public spectacle. the reporters camped out in cleveland was president and was fully aware and he had no desire to become the object of a spectacle.

he was very introverted and did not want to be the center of attention i think we should do that in secret in the doctor said o.k.. why they would to do that is an example of how the patient dictates the terms of treatment, not the doctors. you see this and how they don't get the best treatment because the doctors acquiesce to the patient's demand. where do remove a tumor in secret from the roof -- roof of the house? but cleveland himself to up with the idea to have it removed on a friend's yacht. he had a friend

today did have an amnesty should they had nitrous oxide and easter but found it did not sedate enough as of tuesday's there which is a period collotype elf compound to operate with that in a close to, as was off probably not the best. day anesthetized them and it took about 90 minutes. they removed the tumor with most of the upper left palin and five teeth. everything was taken out as as a big chunk of the upper

left jawbone using using that in forceps? there was no means of blood transfusion so he lost the blood and there was no means of artificial resuscitation but nevertheless, how the operation succeeded and they packed the mouth with dogs and gave him a shot of morphine and four days later on july 5th, he had been missing for days over the fourth of july weekend in the chief executive isn't quite what it is today, but even then it was a little unusual for the president to disappear over the fourth of july. but he arrives at his home on the evening of the fifth.

none of the reporters were there and probably back but finding out that he had returned coming he healed remarkably quickly and fitted with a prosthetic device after the food had healed come 85th negative and this to plug a hole 1/2 in restore the shape of his face because the job was missing but more importantly, restored the speaking device. without that it was unintelligible and he was famous for his speaking voice. one of the greatest of the era. with this device he could speak again. in appeared completely normal they had not made any

external incision done entirely an of mouth and left a the zero mustache so it looked like he was going for a long vacation and was out fishing within a couple of weeks and reporters were kept added distance. remember how ronald reagan would stand by the helicopter to say i cannot hear you? they kept him added distance then the spokesperson would say everything was fine. there were rumors. one of the doctors of about had missed an appointment because he was performing the operation so he explained i was operating on the president of the united states. that was a good enough excuse but then word began to filter that something had

happened. eventually fade reached a reporter by the name of e.j. edwards who was a correspondent for the philadelphia press. a great time for the newspapers. i forget how many daily papers new york had. everything was very competitive. e.j. edwards heard the story in the rumors and found out one of the names of the source was a dentist to administer the amnesty share. he played patrick within the fair grounds of journalism two lead on that he knew more about the story the and he did in said i understand a cancerous tumor was removed on the benedictine got and he figured somebody on the boat was 10 told you

so he spilled the beans and edwards confirmed the operation and august 29th he published a story in the philadelphia press under the headline "the president is a sick man" but nobody believed him. that is because cleveland had developed a reputation for honesty and integrity in the spokespersons said this was a lie. they said he merely had a bad tooth extracted which was technically true if you did not mention the other t's in the jawbone. the public was inclined to believe cleveland. he was known as the honest president. and almost appears as if he has built up the capital and now decided to cash in his

chips and it worked. he recruited some of his friends in the press and especially a rival paper too not only denied of story but discredit the story so e.j. edwards was derided as a disgrace to journalism and had come up with good grace groups in american history with the most detailed accounts of a medical procedure performed without the authorization and nobody believed him. it was too bad. cleveland probably went too far to discredit edwards. one thing to keep it secret but ruin this man's reputation. the secret held well into

the 20th century. he died in 1908 there was no recurrence of the cancer. this is a significant achievement to have a cancerous tumor removed from somebody in 1893 with no recurrence was spectacular. but nobody knew about it. not until 1917 that one of the doctors who had taken part of the operation, a fascinating man, there are three main characters the president and newspaperman and the man keane graduated from med school then served in civil war as a commissioned officer working as a medic then later in world war i. he had an amazing career spanning this period from

what we would almost consider medieval medicine and he always felt badly about the way he was treated. 1917 he decided to publish an account of the operation so ask permission from cleveland's wife frances and i should point* out she had the baby six weeks after the report came out that he had cancers of this help to quash any last doubts about whether or not the president was a sick man. he is making babies, how sick can he be? keane asked permission to publish the account and grover had been dead but she buy the way remarried after he died and mary a princeton professor and married to him much longer than she was married to grover.

but she lived a long time and in 1947 is seated next to eisenhower at a fancy dinner. her place card identified her as mrs. preston so eisenhower had no idea and at one point* they talked about washington and she said you know, i used to live in washington? he said where? [laughter] only then she identified herself as the former first lady and he was embarrassed but she agreed with keane there should be an account published so that fall of 1917 he broke the embargo to publish an account of the operation on "the saturday evening post" for rethink he would go to a medical journal to talk about this achievement but instead he decides to go to "the saturday evening post."

asking them why do you think this article "the saturday evening post"? he said he had a big ego and wanted everybody to know in that was the most popular periodical in the country. that was a place to brag also to vindicate in -- edwards and it did 24 years after the fact that keane roche he was glad that finally edwards reputation as a truthful correspond it was vindicated and it was big news who had always wondered about the account and he was still among the leave -- living at the time and edwards should be much better remembered an end line of the early ones working with jacob riis and

was an early supporter of stephen crane letting him stay in his apartment. one of the things i think have been to his house was burned down to the ground and lost a lifetime of correspondence and there was no legacies to leave. it would be amazing to see exactly what his thoughts were. then he found himself avello fayed in than pay all have some of the papers and i could koppel to cover his story for that. but then another post script, but tumor itself which is that the museum in philadelphia, not much to look at some like a piece of

land cauliflower 10 fragments of bone and this this blob been said john r. always tantalized historians because but it was a modern and achievement for cancer of research say has successfully moves that tumor but there was a problem, his children but it in fact, agree with it to church reading day woman named cleveland and she said he was my grandfather. born 1837 but when he was 60 had a son francis and then

when he was 60 had a daughter and 1957 named margaret. 120 years between the birth of margaret and her grandfather. fit children live well into the 20th century and would not allow the specimen the ku says grover was a wild guy and rumors he had the venereal disease and specifically, syphilis ago the children were afraid if it came out and did testing it would come out but not until the 1970's say finally acquiesced to have the examination done in it determined he had a very rare kind of cancer is a malignant tumor but it did

not metastasize. bytes it has to be removed because it continues to grow in a will make keating or breathing impossible so the tumor is self what study been identified until 1948 said these doctors had no idea what this was because it was not even identified as a way to remove the cancer. you have to remove it completely although today they can do reconstructive bone and tissue graft so you don't have to walk around with a hockey puck in your mouth. this explains why grover had gone so long without any report -- recurrence and also said tests are

conclusively determined their results are in a book which is now for sale. [laughter] thank you very much of anybody has any questions. [applause] deny cover everything so excellent? >> thank you for the zero wonderful talk how did he die? what was the cause of death? been a he retired to princeton and it is a bit of the mystery and actually there was some suspicion he may have the intestinal tumor although since the world cancer did not metastasizes it would not

have been related to the oral cancer but it is a mystery and he was 71 when he died 1908 in the official cause was listed as cardiac arrest but that does not explain the precipitating cause is. he retired to princeton. he had never gone to college but went to princeton in became the mascot and that after the football victories the students would march there and give such year. >> we have a microphone. >> wanted to increase over

production during those periods of great deflation in the country and money is impossible to find. they took with them a lot of businesses.

each of the hong tells where they pass three in the ancillary businesses went out of business. the panic lasted until about 18981 the spanish-american anwr came to give the economy a boost. at the time it was the worst depression with double-digit unemployment more than five years. only exceeded now with the great depression of the thirties but remember during that panic, a terrible unemployment, in inflation but no safety net. even the most rudimentary and grover was opposed to this and did not believe in paternalism and said, people should cheerfully support the government the government should not support the people. ron paul paints a picture -- keeps a picture of cleveland in his office and it contributed to his

unpopularity, but by some accounts it extended the panic which also for the first time we do see a semblance of public-works projects may be paying people $1 per day to talk boyd but most of the relief programs were run by labor unions and also churches and other charitable organizations with no government support program. it was also exacerbated with some amazing ride teeing i do about this that will blow your mind. [laughter] there was a hurricane that hit the southeast coast in the fall 19 -- 1893 and pretty much devastated georgia and a the carolinas that contributed to even greater problems with the panic of 1893. there was nothing more

resources to rebuild these areas. it was an end but that is what made it such a terrible year economically and took about four years before the panic the you will like it. [laughter] you should get two copies to give one a way. >> what was the makeup of the congress at the time of the degree vince would they have known about it? >> cleveland was gold and the vice president stephen

sin was grandfather of the future candidates. he liked so were. he was from illinois in favor of bi-metalism using both as currency and had been added to the ticket to give balance because the democrats needed to win the southern states. you have the unusual situation president and vice president are on the most exact opposite on the issue and adamant stevenson not know what was going on. he was that the world's fair and heard rumors about his health and cleveland intercepted to say actually i would like you to go on a political trip to seattle. 1893 which involve stagecoach, train, ferry, bo ats, that puts him out of action for a considerable time. at the time the democrats

control both houses for the first two years of the second term but the panic had gotten so bad by 1894 the republicans took back the two houses of the cleveland did manage to have the sherman silver purchase act repealed shortly after the surgery that stop the treasury from purchasing those 4.5 million ounces of silver what they had accumulated so much and sold so many certificates that they were actually issued invalid through 1968. another cool thing you see these decisions made in think they have no relevance but they do. if you hear the echoes 120 years later. one of my jobs as a gas

station attendant use the sole versus to the kids come in once in a while. it has a blue steel. >> i like your sense of humor. [laughter] >> you are a good listener. >> do you have a fondness for him because he was a great president or where would you put him? >> he had a muppet named after him you have to like grover. it is amazing because to lose the white house and come back four years later and win it to back? will that ever happen again? it is impossible now to think the incumbent loses in

retired to the $200,000 speaking events which is exactly what i am getting paid today ironically. [laughter] but there were no pensions at the time and part of the concern was it was pretty much the only job he enjoyed in could do. he retired to new york in a little bit of practicing as a mediator. but he was the last of of do nothing president's. not in a bad way. he vetoed twice as many bills in the first term as predecessors combined and saw his job as keeping congress from passing bad law and thought that was what the executive was supposed to do. he did it as mayor and governor and president and was the veto president and did not believe in the

interventionist government. i think he deserves to be remembered much more than he is. he has a turnpike named after him and that is about its. and this great new book. [laughter] is that it? [inaudible] purchase is a place mat to have the president's and said i think there is a mistake because the pitchers are coming up twice. >> he screwed up the numbers although truman could never understand why he was counted twice and thought that was ridiculous because only 43 people had been president.

thanks, grover. [laughter] >> thank you for a very interesting talk and he will be happy to sign a copy. thank you. [applause] >> no webster has the best seller and the things she knows everything and

sometimes he does. 1785 he decides what is wrong with america in was bought on. the problem is under the articles of confederation, the federal government did not have enough power so he writes a pamphlet and in when he has an idea he does something and takes it to mount vernon to george washington. he was not a college guy beds a yale man and adams was a harvard man but washington was not an college in very impressed to say that this is eight i said i will give as soon as possible. the pamphlet becomes instrumental in drafting the constitution. th